Hi

I am new to drones but have flown helicopters before. I have already flew a few times successfully in bad cold windy weather.

After reading lots of stories about Spark fly aways. I just wanted to be on safe side and wanted to know from the experienced drone pilots what to do in a situation like that.
I tried to recreate the same issue by covering the sensors and flew it indoors ( so that the worse thing is its going to hit the ceiling and drop on the floor). In P mode without GPS as its indoors the Spark kept ascending even after I stopped and pull the controls downwards. So I have to catch it quickly before it hit the ceiling.
I also tried the same thing on sports mode still the same issue. Once you lifted it off the ground it will not stop or respond to the controls.
I personally thing it is an issue with the firmware and there’s no option to override and force it to descend when something goes wrong with the VPS. I may be wrong as my knowledge with these drones is very limited.

I would appreciate if anyone could give me some advice on force landing or any other action to bring the drone down safely.

Thank you

Regards
Ram

Fascinating experiment. Thank you for your contribution and bravery getting these new data. You may really be on to something here. Eager and will watch with keen interest and anticipation to see where this may go!

Nearest I can find in the manual to bringing it down in an emergency - hardly safely though.

Shut VPS off and see what it does.
I posted a thread and noticed when I lost VPS, dark room, it was a handful. Started getting compass errors, turned on the light and it corrected.
Can VPS cause issues at altitude, outside? Maybe.

No way to turn off VPS Easley on the spark, you would have to hack the config file. VPS is only used to a certain height, I think 30 feet or so and them barometer and IMU/GPS take over the altitude. I could be wrong but that's what I have found in logs and flying the spark.

Indoor the spark will tend to want to hit he ceiling due to air currents it produced by it's own motors. But should hold altitude if VPS sensor gets a good read. Make sure your on the correct type of surface (read the manual 20 times)  I fly mine inside all the time.

"VPS is only used to a certain height, I think 30 feet or so and them barometer and IMU/GPS take over the altitude." - Does VPS switch off after 30 feet or is it just not effective after 30 feet?

The difference would be that if its just that the VPS is only effective up to 30 feet, something could happen over 30 feet where the VPS senses something underneath it and thinks that it needs to rise above it.

If the VPS switches off after 30 feet then nothing that happens under it should have any impact.

VPS is active even if you are 1000 feet over the ground..just cannot read data beyond a certain distance.   i watched videos of people flying they start passing through clouds/fog few hundred feet up a mountain and VPS sees it and shows weird data.  like 0.1m or 1.0m

i agree, the spark needs to have a feature you can turn VPS off in settings, i dont think it is the cause of spark flyaways on its own but it probably does contribute to some of the cases for sure!  and a firmware update to give people the option to turn off VPS or set VPS limits like even if its presets... if fly higher than that, turns off the VPS.

also i think if the spark is about to flip into atti mode say its readings are getting progressively more invalid, it should pull up an alert on screen, telling you this isn't is not good, have you manually fly it back with some virtual guidance on screen.. like augmented line to keep you on straight path back home..  because if it goes into atti mode like that and the app has that augmented featured built in it will be easier for most people to be able to rescue their own aircrafts.. they wont be so surprised by it wanting to crash because they have an objective .. to stay on the line/between the lines in the app.

i want to buy a spark for myself, i fly a mavic right now and i do want a smaller drone for smaller/tighter use cases and also i just want one.  however i am put off as a more serious drone use by the spark's easily correctable issues that DJi glazes over for god only knows what reasoning.   dji

Litchi, you can turn it off in the app.

Hi, sir, I would not recommend you do it again. Please fly in environment above 0°C for your drone's safety. Thanks a lot.

CabinPete Posted at 2018-1-7 15:16
Shut VPS off and see what it does.
I posted a thread and noticed when I lost VPS, dark room, it was a handful. Started getting compass errors, turned on the light and it corrected.
Can VPS cause issues at altitude, outside? Maybe.

I have flown my SPARK at mid night up to 1.2 Kilometer distance.  I dont think the VPS has much effect on the fly away but can't be sure either !

djiuser_MP6tU5Q Posted at 2018-1-7 15:58
VPS is active even if you are 1000 feet over the ground..just cannot read data beyond a certain distance.   i watched videos of people flying they start passing through clouds/fog few hundred feet up a mountain and VPS sees it and shows weird data.  like 0.1m or 1.0m

i agree, the spark needs to have a feature you can turn VPS off in settings, i dont think it is the cause of spark flyaways on its own but it probably does contribute to some of the cases for sure!  and a firmware update to give people the option to turn off VPS or set VPS limits like even if its presets... if fly higher than that, turns off the VPS.

'the best would be to reprogram the VPS to  stay ON  if the beginner switch is ON  and VPS stays OFF when the beginner mode is OFF .
But then again the VPS must play during soft landing to the ground  or controlled by the Pilot to  such landings completely.

S.J Posted at 2018-1-8 05:17
'the best would be to reprogram the VPS to  stay ON  if the beginner switch is ON  and VPS stays OFF when the beginner mode is OFF .
But then again the VPS must play during soft landing to the ground  or controlled by the Pilot to  such landings completely.

ya the only issue is landing protection..you can in theory smash the drone to bits if comes down full speed. i did that with my mavic other day, disabled landing protection and VPS and i came down for a landing, and landed full speed 8MPH into the ground, luckily snow absorbed alot of the impact, but still hard enuff it flexed my props or arms or somethign and i shattered one of my props on the pavement under the snow..

  maybe good middle ground solution would be to have to slow is decent if the VPS is obscurred/invalid but not override user input, if using demanding it comes down it should even if it forced to come down only 2.5MPH.  also it should ignore VPS data on RTH or pause... that way if its trapped in some fog, has moisture on sensors/ect or maybe some angry bees or something is crawling on it, you have a chance to rescue it and not having just fly forever into the sky and fall to its death when battery depletes

djiuser_MP6tU5Q Posted at 2018-1-18 15:03
ya the only issue is landing protection..you can in theory smash the drone to bits if comes down full speed. i did that with my mavic other day, disabled landing protection and VPS and i came down for a landing, and landed full speed 8MPH into the ground, luckily snow absorbed alot of the impact, but still hard enuff it flexed my props or arms or somethign and i shattered one of my props on the pavement under the snow..

  maybe good middle ground solution would be to have to slow is decent if the VPS is obscurred/invalid but not override user input, if using demanding it comes down it should even if it forced to come down only 2.5MPH.  also it should ignore VPS data on RTH or pause... that way if its trapped in some fog, has moisture on sensors/ect or maybe some angry bees or something is crawling on it, you have a chance to rescue it and not having just fly forever into the sky and fall to its death when battery depletes

Hi, why my spark bounding to the wall after an upgrate to vers 1.00.1 and in red health decreased at start ?
youtu.be/WEkZGUY_--8
Thanks a lot for any help

djiuser_MP6tU5Q Posted at 2018-1-18 15:03
ya the only issue is landing protection..you can in theory smash the drone to bits if comes down full speed. i did that with my mavic other day, disabled landing protection and VPS and i came down for a landing, and landed full speed 8MPH into the ground, luckily snow absorbed alot of the impact, but still hard enuff it flexed my props or arms or somethign and i shattered one of my props on the pavement under the snow..

  maybe good middle ground solution would be to have to slow is decent if the VPS is obscurred/invalid but not override user input, if using demanding it comes down it should even if it forced to come down only 2.5MPH.  also it should ignore VPS data on RTH or pause... that way if its trapped in some fog, has moisture on sensors/ect or maybe some angry bees or something is crawling on it, you have a chance to rescue it and not having just fly forever into the sky and fall to its death when battery depletes

Sorry i'm french ;)

djiuser_CzhIMkJ8zFl4 Posted at 10-15 08:59
Hi, why my spark bounding to the wall after an upgrate to vers 1.00.1 and in red health decreased at start ?
youtu.be/WEkZGUY_--8
Thanks a lot for any help

Hiya,

Why do you not start a new thread?/  this one ends jan 18 !
If you want people to help you, link your flightrecord as well.

cheers
JJB

So, I have a question...
Is the downward facing VPS disabled during ATTI-mode on the Spark?

Thank you.

djiuser_DMDBdhGh7SN8 Posted at 11-1 10:01
So, I have a question...
Is the downward facing VPS disabled during ATTI-mode on the Spark?

Simple answer:
No!
Longer answer:
ATTI mode is, when "no GPS, but to high in the Air for VPS"
VPS will take over, as soon you get the bird down to the range of the sensors.
Which is when the sensors sensing something in  reach, below them!